


time to child proof the sewer entrances

by akanesgf



Series: DGM Secret Santa [1]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 09:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9315068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akanesgf/pseuds/akanesgf
Summary: “Timothy’s missing?” Allen asks incredulous. Sure, Timothy is small, but Klaude usually has an iron grip on him. Not to mention his bright blue hair makes him an easy target to spot.Emilia nods. She only looks a little worried though, so it must not have been too long since they lost him. “Yes… I hate to ask this of you, but could you help me search? Klaude refuses and no one else has the time…” Allen looks back to Link. Link sighs but gives a sharp nod. Allen grins.“Sure, we can help.”





	

 

“Timothy’s missing?” Allen asks incredulous. Sure, Timothy is small, but Klaude usually has an iron grip on him. Not to mention his bright blue hair makes him an easy target to spot.  
  
Emilia nods. She only looks a little worried though, so it must not have been too long since they lost him. “Yes… I hate to ask this of you, but could you help me search? Klaude refuses and no one else has the time…” Allen looks back to Link. Link sighs but gives a sharp nod. Allen grins.   
  
“Sure, we can help.”   


* * *

  
Allen ends up regretting his offer to help a lot sooner than he had expected.   
  
In retrospect, Timothy is a little kid. The fact that he is playing hide-and-seek with them isn’t too surprising. It is more than a little unfortunate that he chose the sewers as a hiding place. Link and Emilia find it more than a little unfortunate.   
  
(He knows this because they both had no problem being vocal about it. Very vocal.)   
  
"That little brat! Once I get my hands on him...ugh!" Emilia goes on to say some not-so-kid-friendly things in French. She most likely thought Allen and Link couldn't understand. Allen isn't going to tell her otherwise, though Link might have if he weren't so busy glaring at Allen.

He’s been mad ever since Johnny had told them Timothy had been asking about the various sewer entrances in the Order. Johnny had felt so guilty almost to the point of crying, but they had all told him not to worry about it. The science department was being worked so hard, it was no wonder he was too tired to realize what a bad idea it was to tell Timothy.   
  
"You know," Link begins in a clipped tone,"Kanda isn't going to be pleased if we're late. In fact, he'll most likely leave without us." Allen laughs at him. He's in a rare good mood today, despite wading through the sewers to find Timothy.   
  
"Since when do you care what Kanda thinks?" Link doesn't sputter, but he might as well have. Allen's gotten pretty good at reading him after all this time.   
  
"I don't. But this is still a waste of our time. General Klaude should be down here instead." Before Allen even gets a chance to respond, Emilia interjects.   
  
"Try telling her that. She said she'll only go looking for him once he's been gone for twenty-four hours. Until then it's his fault for running away." Emilia's voice drops towards the end, trying at an impression of Klaude. Allen thinks she does pretty well.   
  
Link stops walking, almost making Emilia run into him. She lifts the lantern up a bit and raises an eyebrow at him. Her eyes flick over to Allen's, her expression asking _Do you know what's wrong with him?_ Allen just shrugs.   
  
Link lets out an irritated hiss and turns his head towards Emilia. Allen's neck twinges in sympathy. "Are you telling me that if we just wait a couple of hours the General will do her job?" Emilia's mouth twists into a snarl.   
  
"Are you suggesting we leave him in the sewers until she decides it's been too long?" For the first time, Allen really understands why Timothy is so scared of Emilia. Link either doesn’t get the hint or he doesn’t care.

“You are free to keep searching, Ms. Galmar, but this really isn’t our job. And I doubt Central would be pleased to hear about this excursion anyways. Let’s go Walker-” Emilia Galmar, who has now forever earned Allen’s respect, grabs Link’s ear and pulls him until they are nose to nose.

“Listen here, _Inspector_ ,” This is as much as Allen hears before a small hand grabs his elbow and _yanks_.

Thankfully, Allen recognizes that it’s Timothy just in time to not attack. He also manages to keep his steps quiet. In normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be enough to elude Link, but he and Emilia are focused almost entirely on each other.

Allen does feel a little bad walking away from them, considering how stressed out they both are. On the other hand, Timothy clearly has a purpose for dragging him down the tunnels. Allen doesn’t want to scare him off by calling the Adults. He’ll just have to make it up to Link later.

Timothy pulls him into an offshoot tunnel. “That was easier than I thought it would be.” Allen smiles at him.

“Link’s tired today. Besides, Emilia can be pretty scary.” Timothy nods gravely. “So,” Allen narrows his eyes for effect,”why are you hiding in the sewers?” Depending on Timothy’s answer, Allen would take him back to the Order.

Not that he wants to at all. However you look at it, Timothy is much too young to be involved with the Holy War. But being separated from Link was bad enough, they couldn’t risk it.

Timothy’s hands clench into fists and his cheeks puff out. “I kept hearing noises in the vents! But no one ever listens to me, so I went to investigate myself.” Noises in the vents, huh? Allen guesses he can pass that off as important enough to walk around with Timothy for a while. After all, it could be something dangerous.

“All right then! Let’s go find whatever’s making those noises.” It’s most likely nothing, the sensors were one of the first things installed, but the way Timothy lights up is worth it. This had to be way more exciting than learning to fight Demons after all.

 

* * *

 

Allen had forgotten the map.

Well, actually, he had never _had_ the map. Link was in charge of the map on the grounds that Emilia didn’t want to and Allen would get them lost. So of course, Allen and Timothy are now lost.

Allen could say some of it is Timothy’s fault, but it’s hard to blame a nine-year-old when you’re sixteen. Allen sighs, they were going to be stuck down there for a while. Or at least, they would’ve been had Timcanpy not chosen that moment to bite Allen on the thumb.

“Ow! Timcanpy!” Instead of continuing to bite him like usual, Timcanpy backs up and opens his mouth. A projection flickers out and Allen almost cries with relief. Well, not really, but he felt like he could.

“Allen! There are scratch marks over here!” Timothy yells from a little-ways ahead. Allen blinks in surprise and walks over to him, Timcanpy following behind. He hadn’t really been expecting anything to happen.

Timcanpy’s projection flickers out but Allen’s attention is on the wall. Five large lines have been carved into the brick, each one about two feet long. It’s hard to see in the dim lighting of the sewers but Allen guesses they’re each about three inches deep. His blood runs cold.

“Hey Timothy-” He’s about to suggest they go back when a loud whirring noise cuts him off. Large glowing eyes blink to life in the tunnel in front of them and Allen doesn’t even stop to find out what it is. He grabs Timothy and runs.

 

* * *

 

They run into Link and Emilia on their way back. Allen would’ve been a lot happier about it if he hadn’t actually ran into Link. Thankfully, they both have fast enough reflexes so they don’t fall. They just kind of awkwardly stumble for a second until Link puts a hand on the wall to steady himself. Allen ends up sort of right in Link’s face, which gets him an excellent view of just how angry Link is with him. And also how bad the bags under his eyes are.

“Walker-”

“Ah, Link, we don’t really have the time for this right now…” Link suddenly grips Allen’s collar roughly. It’s not an emotional reaction however, he’s just making sure Allen won’t run away. Link narrows his eyes.

“Why not Walker?” His tone is even and professional, not betraying any of the anger simmering in his glare. Allen opens his mouth to respond, but is rudely interrupted by the inhuman screeching of their pursuer. Link sighs and lets go of his collar.

“I’m assuming that noise is something large and lethal chasing us. Am I wrong?” Allen nods.

(He also reminds himself to give Link a break from now on. He sounds exhausted.)

He looks over at Emilia, who is gripping Timothy’s upper arm with an iron fist. She doesn’t look angry anymore though, instead she is staring wide-eyed behind them. She most likely heard them talking then.

“Guess we should probably start running now.” Allen says. He tries to make it come out jokingly, but he ends up sounding as tired as Link. Emilia nods numbly.

“Guess so.” None of them move.

The sound returns again, but this time much closer. Ten metal blades cutting into old brick. Emilia steps back nervously, her grip on Timothy slacking. He takes his chance to slip out of her grip and get into a fighting stance. Klaude isn’t his teacher for nothing.

Link and Allen exchange a look.

Allen takes Timothy’s hand and starts running. It takes a few seconds for them to set a good pace. Allen tries to slow down enough that Timothy can keep up, but still be fast enough to escape.

Link will take Emilia into the opposite tunnel, and they’ll hopefully all meet up again at the entrance. It wasn’t really a detailed plan, but it was the best one they could come up with without actually talking to each other. It would have been nice if they could have at least looked at Timcanpy’s map together…

Timothy tugs on his arm and Allen shakes himself out of his thoughts. Allen looks down at him.

“What do you think it is? The thing chasing after us.” Allen hums and they turn a corner. According to Tim’s map they’d be near the entrance soon enough.

“Hmm, maybe it’s a werewolf.” Allen says lightly. Timothy snorts.

“Werewolves aren’t real.”

“Oh? I guess it could be one of Komui’s robots then…” The suggestion isn’t really a joke. He didn’t say it seriously for Timothy’s sake, but now that he’s thought about it it’s the best explanation.

Well, once they get Timothy and Emilia out, he and Link can investigate.

 

* * *

 

Once they’d all met up again by the entrance of the sewer (Allen has no idea how Link found it), Emilia grips Timothy’s ear and starts to drag him back to the Order.

“Thank you for your help! I’ll make sure to tell Komui to give you a break.” Emilia had called back over her shoulder. Even if Emilia weren’t terrifying, they could probably guilt Komui into a break. There’s a ninety-percent chance this is all his fault anyways.

Allen and Link head back into the sewers, both thoroughly exhausted and ready to be done with the whole ordeal. The monster doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo.

It takes them about thirty minutes to beat it. In that time, Allen confirms his suspicions that it was Komui-built. He doesn’t feel nearly as guilty about missing that mission with Kanda now.

Link climbs out of the sewer first, Allen following up the ladder behind him. It’s snowing, Allen notes as he reaches the top rung. There’s about an inch or so on the ground. Link clicks his tongue.

“Our clothes are going to frost over at this rate.” Allen thinks that’s a slight exaggeration. He’s not really eager to test it though.

“Maybe! We should hurry back to the Order.” Allen replies, faking a smile. It’s more for his own sake than Link’s.

Link nods, but doesn’t respond anymore than that. He starts trudging ahead through the snow.

 

* * *

 

Allen is very ready to go to bed. In fact, he was ready hours ago. Unfortunately, his brain doesn’t seem to agree.

Instead he’s sitting by the window, nursing a cup of black tea Link made for him before going to sleep. Allen wonders how tired Link was, he was kind of slacking off, leaving Allen awake unsupervised. Not to mention black tea isn’t really the best for insomnia, but at this point Allen has given up on sleep.

He’s considering actually finding something to read instead of just spacing out, when someone knocks on the door. He blinks himself out of his thoughts and slowly gets up. He pulls his blanket tighter around his shoulders and braces himself for whoever has decided to visit. It’s around one, so it probably isn’t gonna be good news.

Allen opens the door and is almost tired enough to think no one’s there. He’s not quite there yet, and Timothy’s hair is bright enough to draw his eyes downward though. Allen runs a hand through his hair (still wet from his very thorough shower) and steps aside so Timothy can enter.

“Is there something wrong Timothy?” Allen asks, shutting the door behind him. Timothy flushes and shakes his head.

“No! But Emilia is being lame and went to bed super early, so I was wondering if we could hang out?” He won’t meet Allen’s eyes as he says this, his posture rigid. Allen suspects he may be too scared to go to sleep after what happened in the sewers, but he doesn’t push it.

“Sure, I can’t really go to sleep either.” Allen hums trying to think of something they could do. “Do you want me to teach you how to play cards?”

“I already know how to play cards!” Timothy says indignantly, but in a mock-whisper. It seems he’s noticed Link sleeping just a few feet away. It’s kind of a miracle he hasn’t woken up already. Allen smiles.

“Alright then, do you want to learn how to cheat at cards?” He leans close and says this in a conspiratorial whisper. Timothy beams.

“Yeah!”

 

* * *

   
The next morning Link wakes up to Allen and Timothy asleep on the table, an entire card deck spread out between them. He sighs and makes his morning coffee. He knows he’s going to need it.

**Author's Note:**

> hrrrngghhhh this is soooo late. this is my fic for the dgm secret santa exchange.
> 
> i've been having a lot of computer troubles recently so i wasn't able to work on it as much as i would have liked to. so...it's late....bluh i am so so sorry
> 
> but! it's finally done, so i hope y'all enjoy my very very late contribution


End file.
